Re: Perfect Pitch

On Tue, 25 Jul 2000, Roger Mills wrote:

We might have done something like you describe. Whatever it was, it
didn't last long as I do recall reading "real books" certainly by
2nd or 3rd grade. I remember reading "Hobbit" in 4th.

Padraic.

>I started out in a small non-public school, run as kind of a
>teacher-training adjunct at a small local college.  Back in those dark ages
>(1940), I don't think the system had a name; it was the _only_ system.  But
>essentially phonics.  We first learned the consonants; then the "short"
>vowels a: cat, i: hit etc.  then the "long" ones, (with silent -e) mate,
>bite etc.  And we had to "sound out" the words. I think the more exotic
>combos must have come in later grades.   I don't recall whether I could read
>before I started school; I was _read to_ a lot, and could tell if someone
>skipped a word, but that was more likely memorization.  I have a very early
>memory, when I could read, of being perplexed by the word "fiend" in one of
>my sister's comic books.  It looked so much like "friend", but the context
>was clearly not friendly.
>
>Whatever the system, it seems to have worked.   My nephews, in the early
>60s, were taught by the whole-word method, and had great difficulty.
>